Welcome! Here you will find articles of various topics. Many will be of pagan origin, but others will focus on a variety of subjects. This will be a sharing from Dale to the world. Please enjoy and freely comment!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

The Myth Of Human Sacrifice

The invading Spaniards believed they were superior to us. Because of this, they did not attempt to fully understand our culture. This point is obvious when we look at the origins of the words Mexicanos, Chile, Pozole, Papalote, and Atole. The correct spellings of these words are Mexica, Chilli, Pozolli, Papalotl, and Atolli. The Spaniards were thus too lazy to pronounce our words correctly and instead replaced the li and tl endings with e. Because they could not pronounce the sound sh, they replaced it with x, signifying an unknown sound. If of course the Spaniards never developed a full understanding of our language, there is no reason to assume that they understood our culture either. Combine this with the fact that the Spaniards were attempting to demonize us and we get a mixture of half-truths and lies. The most blatant lie the Spaniards perpetrated was the claim that we sacrificed. First of all, it should be made clear that we did not worship gods as the Spaniards have claimed. How then is it possible for us to sacrifice to the gods? When the Spaniards arrived, they had no idea about atomic theory or DNA, therefore it was inevitable that they would distort our culture due to their ignorance.The most striking fact is that today's "scholars" admit we had a sophisticated knowledge of the universe yet they continue to believe that we sacrificed. It is currently taught that our people did not know if the sun would rise and believed that by sacrificing people, it would assure the rising of the sun the next morning. The gods were so blood thirsty that they would actually withhold the rising of the sun without human blood. This is obviously absurd reasoning. Our people knew the exact location, degree, inclination, and time of every sunrise for literally years into the future. Yet they were supposedly unsure if the sun would rise every day? According to Kurly Tlapoyawa, there are only two accounts of human sacrifice ever recorded by the Spaniards; that of Hernan Cortez and his general Bernal Diaz del Castillo (We Will Rise, p. 148). It has been discovered however that these two accounts are false. Cortez and Castillo both claimed to have witnessed the sacrifice of their captured comrades atop the main temple in Tenochtitlan from Tlacopan. This feat was impossible however because the distance was much too great for anyone to see anything. These are the ONLY accounts of sacrifice ever recorded by a Spaniard yet amazingly, today's "scholars" continue to use these lies as undeniable evidence. Combine this with the fact that not one skeleton has been found with trauma to the chest plate of rib cage and the truth becomes clear. Archaeologists speak nonchalantly about the ripping out of hearts from the body by priests. Do they lack common sense? Cutting the chest plate open is a relatively easy task but getting through the rib cage is a almost impossible. One would require a saw to get through the rib cage and even then, it would take hours to finally get to the heart. Add the fact that Castillo claimed we sacrificed 60,000 people in 4 days and you get the mind boggling figure of 1 person killed every 6 seconds for 96 consecutive hours. As can be seen, common sense is all that is required to see past their lies (We Will Rise, p. 151-2).Another argument archaeologists like to cite is that of the skull racks. The skull racks in our society were used as a deterrent to crime. If a high official stole something for example, he/she would be killed and the skull would be placed on the skull rack. Imagine seeing your friend's skull on the rack; most likely you will try to avoid the same fate. It is true that the captured Spaniards were killed but it was not sacrifice to the gods but it was as a punishment. There were rules of war throughout Anahuak society that everybody adhered to. For instance, both sides were required to have an equal number of weapons and warriors and a battlefield was sought where no defenseless people would be hurt. The Spaniards invaded the city (punishable by death), did not share their weaponry with us (punishable by death) and killed innocent elders, women and children (punishable by death). This is the reason our warriors sought to capture the Spaniards because in our eyes, they were nothing more than criminals. Their skulls were then placed on the skull rack (We Will Rise, p. 150).It has already been demonstrated that the Spaniards did not have adequate cultural knowledge to interpret our actions. This is a critical fact because as anyone fluent in Nahuatl will tell you, our language is full of metaphorical speech. We don't say earth, we say "our sacred mother," we don't say poetry, we say "the flower and song," and knowledge is represented by "the black and red ink." There are images all across Anahuak of a hand holding a heart, a "priest" sacrificing a person by removal of the heart, and Xipe Totec supposedly wearing a the skin of his sacrificial victim. Anyone that isn't fluent in Nahuatl (most scholars) would inevitably add these images to their evidence. What appears to be undeniable evidence that we sacrificed at first, turns out to be simply representations of metaphors. The hand holding the heart represents our philosophy that states we should not live life as if we are immortal. Instead we should live every day as if it is our last because we never know when we will perish from the Earth. Our ancestors were thus not procrastinators which made it possible for us to achieve such greatness in a couple hundred years by the time the Spaniards arrived. We do not hesitate. We live every day basking in the beauty of our mother earth and in turn we are obligated to create beauty while we remain on the Earth.As for the images of priests sacrificing a victim in our artwork; this too can be explained by citing our metaphorical speech. The maguey is our most sacred plant. It provides us with fiber for clothing, sap for oktli, and the leaves have medicinal value. After a certain age however, the maguey's stump (what we called it's heart) got so heavy that the plant would fall over and die. To prevent this, the Mexica ceremonially removed the heart (the stump) of the maguey which provides our sustenance and ate it (consumption of the heart). This was graphically portrayed in our artwork because it was a very important task to undertake.And finally, the sculptures of Xipe Totec wearing an extra layer of skin can also be explained only by a full understanding of our metaphorical speech. Xipe Totec represents re-birth. In our language, the skin is said to grow onto our bodies the same way an animal grows it's own skin. Unlike us however, some animals shed their skin. To illustrate this idea of re-birth then, Xipe Totec was portrayed with skin "dangling" (in actuality, being shed). All one has to do is examine the evidence in order to realize human sacrifice did not exist in our society and that this idea was fabricated in order to demonize us in the eyes of the Spaniards. Only by learning Nahuatl and thereby learning to interpret all of our beautiful metaphors will we finally uncover the truth (We Will Rise, 148-53).

2 comments:

A very well argued piece, thank you. While I know relatively little about this subject, I had generally assumed that the human sacrifice etc etc concepts were at least "broadly" accurate (e.g. possibly grossly exaggerated but at least based on some actual evidence). Your work does bring these most basic assumptions into question (which is always a good thing!).

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About Me

Dale is a noted pagan author who is also a Wiccan High Priest with a coven. He is the author of many pagan related articles as well as various other articles that span many topics. He never attempts to hide any knowledge he possesses from those who contact him. Dale is published on various websites and enjoys a large online following. Below is more about Dale:

Has studied many different spiritual paths over the years.

Was was raised “Christian” in a very loose sense…no church was mandated…but basic Christian beliefs were taught.

Currently he is on a path he refers to as Celtic Shamanic Wicca… a very eclectic mix for him, that works well with Celtic traditions, Native American Traditions, and of course Wicca. He does not see leaving this Path, as it has been his Path for many years now.

He reads the cards using a deck called The Well Worn Path…. a Wiccan Deck.